Counteroffer, or after the onboarding you realize that Meta is a huge corporation and that's just not for you.

As someone who has worked at both the biggest corps and the smallest startups (and in between), I can see how going from OpenAI to Meta could hit you like a truck after you do onboarding.

Just not showing up at a job which you have signed a contract for is rude and childish. Even if you are a superduper ai researcher.

You know who shows up every day? An AI head of AI.

Very unprofessional.

If they can fire you at will based on the business needs then the same applies for employer based on personal interests.

Also unethical. Like capitalism.

Contract is an agreement between two or more parties. It can be broken, you just need to bear the consequences - either get sued or find employment somewhere else. It’s not a governor module that kills you if you don’t comply.

There is no contract, you didn't break anything because there's nothing to break.

Don't like it? Great, I don't either. Do something about at will employment.

The reality is that at will employment is abused 1 million to 1 by companies versus laborers. We truly, genuinely, do not give a single fuck when companies screw people over.

We shouldn't, then, care when people do it back. That sucks, sure, so change the laws.

In such cases, would the person still get the signing bonus? Or are these contracts always written with some contingency that the person has to remain for a period?

Either way if a company is willing to throw money to hire you, you probably have enough leverage to get them to write a custom contract in your favor.

Usually the way it works is you get signing bonus with your first paycheck, and then you have to return a prorated amount if you leave before the first year. It's possible they negotiated something better, but unlikely.

Amazon avoids this problem altogether by paying the signing bonus 1/52 with each bi-weekly paycheck for the first two years. They also do the proration on five workdays in a week when it's in their favor, but seven days in a week when it's in your favor, so they win either way.

They would not. And most of these flashy numbers are paid in options, which typically do not begin vesting for 1 year. That bit is negotiable depending on the stock plan, but in any event, certainly no value is given to the employee on day -1 or 0.

When you are paid tens of million to work and have endless options, treating you as employer, or expecting you to implement some assholes vision and not your own is not the way forward.

These guys already have Fuck-you-money https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuck-you-money

  Noun,
  "fuck you money" (uncountable)
    (US, slang, vulgar) Enough money to leave 
    one's job, etc. and enjoy the lifestyle 
    of one's choice.

Counteroffer, obviously

Maybe you know some of the people who've already started and just got re-orged _for the fourth time in six months_ (per the article)?

I mean, if it was me, and I had a bit of a buffer (which, y'know, you'd assume most people in this position do), there'd be a temptation to say "screw that, life's too short", and take a few months off before looking for a job somewhere less silly.